AutoCAD 2002 Bible

♦ Tablet menus control the menu that can be overlaid on a digitizing tablet.

♦ Helpstrings create the short descriptions of each command that appears on the status bar when you place the mouse cursor over a toolbar or a menu item.

♦ Accelerators are keyboard shortcuts. An example is Ctrl+C for the COPYCLIP command.

The AutoCAD menu files acad.mnu and acad.mns contain sections for all these types of menus. Each section starts with three asterisks — for example, ***TOOLBARS.

Most sections also have subsections that start with two asterisks. You do not need to customize all the types of menus. You may wish to customize only the pull-down menus. If you use a digitizer, you will want to customize the tablet menus. You can customize any menu you wish.

Looking at acad.mns

Note

The best way to start customizing a menu is to look at AutoCAD’s acad.mns file and use it as a guide. Each type of menu has its own unique features, but certain features apply to most, if not all, menu types.

When you create a new, complete menu file based on acad.mnu or acad.mns, don’t forget that AutoCAD uses the AutoLISP routines in acad.mnl for many commands. You should therefore make a copy of acad.mnl with the same name as your new menu. For example, if you created a menu called mech.mnu from acad.mnu, make a copy of acad.mnl and name the copy mech.mnl.